


A Home for Christmas

by bad_ash10



Series: Christmas Time is Here [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Young Skye, adoption au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28522587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bad_ash10/pseuds/bad_ash10
Summary: Skye has been in some terrible foster homes and an orphanage. On Christmas Eve, she gets placed with a new family - the Coulsons. She's got a good feeling about them.
Relationships: Phil Coulson & Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Series: Christmas Time is Here [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042866
Comments: 19
Kudos: 66





	A Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this is after Christmas, but it's only like... a week and a half late? I think?
> 
> TW for implied child abuse.

“Alright, Mary Sue,” Margie the social worker said as she put the car in park. “We’re here!”

“I asked you to call me Skye,” the 10-year-old mumbled as she opened the door. “Nobody wants an old lady name.”

Skye made sure to grab the trash bag from the floorboard of the car. It contained all her worldly possessions after all. Even though it wasn’t much, just a spare pair of jeans and a few t-shirts, they were hers. Nobody could take them away from her.

“Are you ready to meet them? They’re very nice, Skye.”

“I guess,” Skye said with a shrug as they walked up the sidewalk toward the door. They couldn’t be worse than her last foster parents, right? Her social worker had really been trying to find a good fit for her in the year or so she had been assigned Skye’s case, and after a bad placement, Skye had spent the last eight months in the crowded orphanage. It was better than being in a home where she wasn’t wanted. At least that’s what she told herself, anyway.

“The husband’s name is Phil and his wife is Melinda,” Margie began. “He’s a high school history teacher, she’s an instructor at the local junior college, but on the weekends, she teaches self-defense and martial arts.”

Skye shivered. It was cold and her threadbare jacket wasn’t doing much to insulate her from the chill. “How come they agreed to take me on Christmas Eve? I don’t know anybody who’s been placed on a holiday.” Skye thought it seemed fishy, if you asked her.

Margie grinned at her. “I’m telling you, Skye. These two seem different. I have a good feeling on this one.”

“You said that before, Margie.”

Margie’s smile slipped, and she stopped Skye before they got to the front door. “I know, Skye. And I made a promise to you, that I wouldn’t let that happen again.”

Skye nodded. She knew Margie was doing her best.

“Now, do you trust me, Skye? I _really_ think these two are different. I think they’ll be good for you.”

Skye nodded again, just as the front door swung open to reveal a nerdy looking man in a green plaid shirt, and a pair of khaki pants. He _definitely_ looked like a teacher.

He smiled broadly and offered a hand to Margie as he came out to greet them.

“Mr. Coulson, it’s good to see you again!” Margie said excitedly, as she shook his hand. “And this is Skye.”

He crouched down to her eye level. “Hi, Skye. I’m Phil.”

Skye watched incredulously as he offered a hand for her to shake as well. No grown-up had ever done that before, so she tentatively took his hand to shake it before he stood again.

“My wife, Melinda, is on her way home from the grocery store and got caught in traffic, but she should be here soon. She’s very excited to meet you!”

Skye made a face. “Why?” No one was ever excited to see her.

Phil’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Well, we finally got approved to be foster parents last week. We thought we’d have to wait a long time to have someone placed with us. We’ve wanted kids for a long time.”

Phil seemed to suddenly realize they were still standing out in the cold. “Oh, come inside! You both must be freezing.” He led them toward the front door and called over his shoulder. “Skye if you’d like some, I can make hot chocolate!”

Margie nudged her gently and mouthed, “See? Different.”

Skye and Margie sat on the plush grey couch, and Skye felt like she was sitting on a marshmallow. This was a much nicer house than she had been in before. She hoped she wouldn’t accidentally break anything here.

Phil smiled at them both and announced Melinda should be home within five minutes before he went to the kitchen to make Skye and Margie both a mug of hot chocolate.

“So….?” Margie prompted once they were alone.

Skye looked around the living room, taking in the simple décor. Nothing fancy, but at least they had some art on the walls and books on the shelves. And a tv.

She shrugged. “He seems nice, I guess.”

Skye and Margie both jumped as a short, Asian woman burst through the door, plastic grocery bags hanging from both of her arms. Her face was flushed from the cold outside, and she shut the door behind her before she called to her husband.

“Phil?! Can you give me a hand with these?”

Phil appeared from the kitchen and took all of the bags from her, and Skye saw him point his wife to the living room.

Skye thought the woman looked nice enough. She didn’t look like a college teacher or a martial arts instructor though.

“You must be Skye,” Melinda said excitedly.

“Yep. That’s me. Good ol’ Skye,” she said cheekily.

Margie elbowed her, but Melinda chuckled.

“Well, Skye, I think we will get along just fine since you seem to have a good sense of humor. We’ve got a room ready for you, but if you want to change something in there, we can do that.”

“Has Phil given you a tour of the house or anything, Skye?”

Margie shook her head. “No, ma’am, we’ve just arrived a couple of minutes before yourself.”

Melinda reached out a hand for Skye to hold and presumably to lead her through the house.

A tour? Skye couldn’t think of one foster parent who had ever offered her a tour of the house. Let alone one that reached out a hand for Skye to hold as they walked.

“Wait, aren’t you coming, Margie?” Skye asked tentatively over her shoulder.

“I will if you want me, too, but I’ve already seen the house on the home visit.”

Skye was suddenly nervous, but Melinda gave her hand a gentle squeeze and shot her a friendly smile, which helped a little. They made their way upstairs, and Melinda lead her through a door just off the landing.

“Ok, Skye. This is your bedroom.”

Skye couldn’t believe how big it was. The cream-colored walls were bare, but they didn’t have stains or scratches on them like some of the houses she’d been in. And the _bed._ The bed was at least twice the size of the sad, twin mattress she slept on at St. Agnes’. Skye looked around the room and noticed a desk built into the corner by the closet, the shelves above it lined with books and movies, and there was even a tv mounted on the wall. This was not like her other foster homes.

“Well? What do you think?” Melinda asked her nervously. “Is it ok?”

Skye gave her a tentative grin, not wanting to get her hopes up too high just yet.

“I think it’s great.”

Melinda let out a breath of relief. “Oh, good. I was so worried you wouldn’t like it! Oh, and Margie gave us your clothes sizes and we bought some things for you and put them in the closet. Whatever you don’t want or don’t like, we can always return them. And! The bedspread is reversible. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like pink, but this one is a pretty shade of dark purple on the other side. We can put it however you prefer.”

Skye stared at her in surprise. No one had ever bought her more than one or two items of clothing at a time, but this couple had bought her almost a full closet of clothes. And she had never had to think if she _liked_ a bedspread before, it was always a matter of using what was available.

“Sorry. I’m talking too much,” Melinda apologized. “Phil is rubbing off on me apparently. He always babbles when he’s nervous, too.”

“Wait, why are you nervous?” Skye asked perplexed.

Melinda furrowed her brow. “We want you to be happy here, Skye. We don’t want to disappoint you.”

“Oh.” Well, that was new. Maybe Margie was right. Maybe they were different.

* * *

Margie left soon after, and Skye sat at the kitchen bar while Melinda and Phil cooked spaghetti with homemade sauce.

Well. Melinda chopped vegetables to go in the sauce, and Phil did all the actual cooking.

“Skye, what do you think Santa will bring you tonight?” Phil asked as he was dropping onions and mushrooms into the pot.

She shrugged. “I learned a long time ago that magic isn’t real. So… I’ve never gotten a present from Santa.”

Phil and Melinda shared a look that she couldn’t figure out.

“What did you get for Christmas last year?” Melinda asked.

“Uh, last year I got some hand-me-down clothes that somebody donated to the orphanage.”

The couple shared another look. What were they thinking?

Phil turned to face her, a questioning look on his face. “No toys or anything?”

Skye shook her head. “No. I gave my gift to one of the little kids.” Melinda was giving her a sad look. “It really wasn’t that bad. We’re used to it,” she reassured the older woman.

Melinda cleared her throat, and Skye thought the woman might be on the verge of tears based on how shiny her eyes had suddenly become.

* * *

Phil and Melinda seemed nice and Skye spent some time after dinner trying on some of the clothes in the closet, carefully hanging the clothes she had brought with her in the closet next to them.

There was a soft knock at the door. “Skye?” Melinda asked.

“Come in!”

Melinda opened the door with a smile. “I meant to tell you there are pajamas and some other things in the dresser if you want to give them a try, too.”

Skye looked at the huge dresser along one wall of the bedroom. “Oh, wow. You guys are… really generous.”

“I think it’s just common decency to make sure you have plenty of clothes, Skye,” Melinda said kindly.

She scoffed. “Yeah, well I guess it seems generous compared to some of the fosters I’ve been with.”

Melinda sighed heavily and changed the subject. “Well, when you’re ready to take a shower, let me know. Phil thought he could do the plumbing himself and now the faucet is _very temperamental.”_

Skye giggled. “He’s not a good plumber, then?”

“Not in the slightest,” Melinda responded with a grin of her own. “He’s a great cook, a great teacher, and has so many other talents. But between you and me,” Melinda dropped her voice to a whisper, “he’s not good at the handyman stuff.”

Skye laughed this time. “I’ll try to remember that if I need something fixed.”

Melinda turned back toward the door. “Well, Phil had to run out to buy some last-minute things that I forgot while I was out today. You’re more than welcome to come downstairs to watch Christmas movies with me, or if that’s not your thing, you’re welcome to hang out in here if you’d rather have some alone time.”

Skye beamed at her. Not many foster parents had given her options like this. The last few had just told her to stay out of the way. “Thanks. If you show me how to work the shower, I can join you when I’m done?”

* * *

The next morning Skye woke early to sounds from the kitchen below. Man, these people sure cooked a lot. Her last foster had just given her cereal or peanut butter sandwiches. Well. More like just left her to find what she could in the kitchen, which happened to be cereal, bread, and peanut butter.

Skye stumbled down the hallway to the bathroom and brushed her teeth before she headed down the stairs to see Phil and Mel. They seemed pretty great yesterday, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up just yet. She’d been fooled by foster parents before.

She finally trudged down the stairs, still half asleep, but she stopped suddenly when she saw the pile of gifts under the tree. Huge wasn’t even the right word. Massive was more like it.

“ _Woah._ ”

Phil peeked his head out of the kitchen and saw her wide-eyed expression.

“Don’t worry, there’s more in the car for us to drop off at St. Agnes’ for the kids there, too.”

Skye’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Do- do you mean these are all for me?”

Phil chuckled. “Well, not _all_ of them. But Melinda and I did go a little overboard, didn’t we?”

She beamed at him. “Thank you.”

Melinda came around the corner carrying a plate of breakfast food and a mug filled with what Skye could only assume was hot chocolate judging by the mountain of whipped cream on top. “I made you a plate, Skye. We’ve got to eat a quick breakfast if we’re going to make it to St. Agnes’ and back before lunch.”

Skye made her way down the stairs and wrapped her arms around Melinda.

* * *

The next year, Skye was still with the Coulsons. Margie had indeed been right when she said they were different.

Skye had never once been hit, yelled at, or otherwise been made to feel unsafe. Melinda had started teaching her martial arts after she had been with them for a few months and Skye had let it slip that she had once had an abusive foster parent.

 _“This way, I will_ never _have to worry about you protecting yourself, Skye,”_ Melinda had told her in their first lesson.

Meanwhile, Phil was introducing her to all sorts of new hobbies – mostly Star Wars related. They had seen all the movies, gone to a convention, and even been to Disney World to see the new Star Wars area of the theme park.

On Christmas day, the little family once again played Santa for the children at the orphanage before coming home for Skye to open another giant pile of gifts.

Little did they know, however, that their best gift would come in the mail the next day.

Skye was drawing in the new sketch book she had gotten for Christmas when she heard Melinda gasp in surprise.

“Oh my God,” Melinda whispered to herself as she read a letter in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” Skye asked, dread pooling in her gut. Somehow, she thought this was about her. Was she going to get moved to a new home?

“Phil! Come here, please!” Mel called before turning to Skye. “Nothing’s wrong,” she reassured the young girl. “I promise, Skye.”

“What’s up?” Phil asked as he came into the room.

Melinda silently handed him the letter and gave him a moment to read. After a few moments, he was grinning broadly.

“Well? Are you guys gonna tell me what’s going on?” Skye wondered, still a little nervous.

Melinda took her hand and squeezed lightly. “We’ve got a date next month for a hearing to finalize your adoption, Skye.”

“Really?” Skye asked, almost not daring to hope it was the truth.

Melinda nodded, happy tears filling her eyes.

Skye leapt out of her chair and flung herself into Melinda’s outstretched arms.

 _I can’t believe I get to stay,_ Skye thought happily to herself. _I finally have a family._

**Author's Note:**

> This was not beta'ed, so I apologize if there were any errors!


End file.
